Augustinowicz took information scanned from a card with radio technology, and with permission, copied it onto the magnetic stripe of his hotel room key.

He used the key to pay for a drink at an airport restaurant.

The video shows that no one said a thing about the transaction.

“Anybody could have looked down and said, ‘Hey, that’s a hotel room key,” said Augustinowicz.

Augustinowicz is founder of Identity Stronghold.

The company makes Secure Sleeves that block scanners from reading the radio waves.

“This is all new to me,” explained David Carey of Bartlett, after Augustinowicz was able to scan his credit card information while his wallet was still in his pocket. “I’m still kind of baffled by it. I don’t know what to think. It’s incredibly easy.”

Or is it?

“I’ve known about it for a number of years,” said Special Agent in Charge Rick Harlow of the Secret Service field office in Memphis. “It’s just not been the problem it’s perceived to be.”

Harlow has never seen a case of electronic pickpocketing.

He believes it’s because a criminal would have to get within inches of a person’s wallet.

Then, only about a quarter of credit and debit cards have radio frequency technology.

“He’s going to have to walk through the mall and getting very close to people for a couple of hours to get, 15 cards?” reasoned Harlow. “Where, as if you can surreptitiously place a skimmer on an ATM that’s fairly popular, you might get 100 cards an hour.”

The Identity Theft Resource Center warned of bad guys with skimmers reading radio chips in December 2010 after we first reported the threat.

Now the group’s executive director believes it’s much ado about nothing.

“We’re all hearing that it’s a possibility,” said Jay Foley of ITRC. “None of us are seeing any indication that it’s a fact that it’s happening.”

Augustinowicz insists it’s just a matter of time.

We watched as he easily got close enough to scan people outside the FedEx Forum.

This time his scanner was off, but clearly no one stopped him.

“Three or four months ago, 99 percent of the people had never even heard of it so they wouldn’t know,” said Augustinowicz. “If they saw this,” he said holding up a case hiding the card scanner, “they wouldn’t even know what it is.”

He denies being driven by profits. He markets a special sleeve for credit cards which are designed to protect them from skimmers. He tells people if they can’t afford a sleeve for their cards, aluminum foil will do the trick.

He says, more than anything, he believes it’s time credit card companies’ own-up to the risk.

“I’m an elected official and I’m oblivious to something like this would even be in circulation,” said Shelby County Commissioner James Harvey after watching Augustinowicz’s demonstration. “So that’s not good.”

“If the credit card companies insist that you can’t do anything with that, I challenge them to post their information, their personal credit card number and expiration date online and give everyone permission to go at it,” said Augustinowicz. “See how many people charge things to their account.”

To see if your card could be vunerable, look for a symbol similar to a speaker with radio waves on the card.

That indicates it has radio frequency technology in it.

Experts say one of the easiest things you can do to limit damage from thieves is to check your credit card statements.

If you notice charges you didn’t make, report them right away to your bank or credit card company.

Most companies will not hold you responsible for unauthorized charges if you catch them and report it.